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How often is your intercom really used?

Written by Radboud Heinink | Nov 28, 2025 3:33:22 PM
 

How Often Is Your Intercom Really Used?

Daily Access Patterns Across Industries

Every ring of the doorbell costs time. Here's what that looks like across different industries - and what you can do about it.

When was the last time you counted how many times your intercom rings in a day?

For most facility managers and IT directors, the answer is "never." Door access feels like background noise - something that just happens. But when you start tracking those interactions, the numbers paint a different picture.

With over 1 billion cameras, intercoms, and access control systems deployed worldwide, the daily volume of access requests is enormous. And every one of those requests costs someone's time.

The Numbers Behind the Doorbell

We work with organizations across industries, from corporate headquarters to hospitals to manufacturing plants. Here's what typical daily intercom usage looks like:

Commercial Buildings & Corporate Sites: 20 - 100+ daily calls

Think visitor appointments, morning arrivals, courier deliveries, and the lunch-time rush of food delivery drivers. High-traffic headquarters with multiple tenants can see significantly more.

Industrial Plants & Manufacturing: 30 - 150+ daily calls

Beyond regular visitors, these environments handle contractor arrivals at shift changes, delivery trucks at loading docks, maintenance crews accessing restricted areas, and emergency access situations.

Logistics Facilities & Warehouses: 50 - 200+ daily calls

This is where volume really adds up. Constant truck arrivals, courier pickups, driver check-ins, and contractor access create steady intercom traffic throughout operating hours.

Schools & Universities: 30 - 100+ daily calls

Parent drop-offs and pickups, visitor sign-ins, late arrivals, deliveries, and maintenance access. Universities with multiple buildings can see much higher numbers.

Hospitals & Healthcare: 50 - 200+ daily calls

Patient visitors, ambulance and emergency access, medical supply deliveries, contractor access to secured areas, and staff moving between wards. Healthcare facilities operate around the clock.

What These Numbers Actually Cost

Let's do some simple math with a mid-sized logistics facility averaging 75 intercom calls per day:

  • 75 calls × 22 working days = 1,650 monthly interactions
  • At 2 minutes average handling time = 55 hours of staff time per month
  • With multiple entry points, this can easily double or triple

Traditional setups require someone - a receptionist, a security guard, a warehouse manager - to walk to a screen, verify the visitor, and manually release the door. That's time pulled away from their actual job.

The Reception Desk Problem

Most organizations solve access management in one of two ways:

The first is dedicated reception staff. This works, but it's expensive. You're paying for someone to sit at a desk waiting for the doorbell - and that person can only cover one entrance at a time.

The second is the "whoever's closest" approach. Someone near the door gets up, checks the intercom, buzzes people in. This works until it doesn't - visitors left waiting, deliveries missed, unauthorized access when someone just hits the button without checking.

Neither approach scales well. Neither leverages the technology investments organizations have already made.

Microsoft Teams Changes the Equation

Here's what makes this problem solvable today: your organization probably already uses Microsoft Teams. Over 320 million people do every month. And your intercoms - whether they're from Axis, 2N, Hikvision, or dozens of other manufacturers - likely support SIP protocols.

CyberGate bridges these two systems. When someone rings your intercom, the call appears in Microsoft Teams. Any authorized employee can answer from their desktop, their phone, or their Teams-compatible desk phone. They see the visitor on live video, have a two-way conversation, and can open the door - all without leaving their desk.

What changes:

  • Distributed response capability. Instead of one receptionist covering one entrance, any employee in your Teams directory can handle access requests.
  • Visual verification before access. Two-way video means you see who's at the door before you open it.
  • Remote door control. Visitors aren't left waiting while someone walks across the building.
  • Complete audit trail. When paired with ATTEST recording, every interaction is captured and searchable.
  • No hardware replacement. CyberGate works with your existing intercoms through Microsoft Azure.

Real Impact Across Industries

For corporate sites, reception can focus on greeting VIP visitors while routine deliveries and contractor access are handled by team members throughout the building.

For manufacturing and logistics, loading dock access doesn't require someone stationed at every entrance. Truck drivers can be verified and granted access by the warehouse team.

For healthcare, after-hours access to secured areas doesn't require calling for a security escort. Staff can verify and admit visitors from their nursing stations.

For education, late arrivals and parent pickups don't create bottlenecks at the main office. Teachers and administrators can manage access from anywhere on campus.

Getting Started

CyberGate works with any Microsoft 365 Business, Enterprise, or Office 365 license. Setup involves configuring your existing intercom to route calls through CyberGate's Azure-hosted service - no on-premise servers, no session border controllers, no complex infrastructure.

Most organizations can be operational within days, not months.

CyberTwice serves over 1,260 customers across 35 countries with Collaborative Safety solutions for Microsoft Teams.

Curious whether your intercoms are compatible? Check our compatibility list at cybertwice.com/compatibility-list